Delay:FlashHarry: it's pretty easy for them to control the message: vote for "not the black guy".

Well, it's weird that Romney's own spokesperson does more to expose Romney's BS than the media.

It's actually a pattern, and it seems to be a deliberate tactic.

Romney's campaign has been trying to play both sides of controversial issues by having the candidate say one thing in public -- the mainstream view -- only to have his campaign walk the statement back almost immediately. That way the low information mainstream voters hear what they want to hear and get on with life. When the base complains about his position, the campaign can say he "misspoke" and the record has been corrected. But most voters don't know about the walk-back.

I've noticed it happens all the time; far too often to be simple error or ineptitude.

what_now:Weaver95: Romney also forced me to register Democrat AND go volunteer for the Obama campaign.

Oh Weaves. I remember when I had you farkied as "fascist".

I *despise* theocracies. And the GOP (at the local/state and federal level) is pushing a 'biblical' form of government. not only are they theocrats but they're authoritarians as well, which is basically super sizing the horribleness of the whole situation. the libertarians - as much as I like them - seem to be just fine with authoritarian style government...just as long as we're being crushed by corporations and not the Fedgov. while I have my issues with the Democrats....out of all my choices, they are the lesser of many evils.

serial_crusher:shrug. Every time I use the phrase "pro-abortion" in a thread, I get a slew of herpaderp about how there's a difference between people who support your right to have an abortion, and those who plan on having one themselves.

No, you probably get a lecture on the difference between being in favor of abortions generally and being in favor of not telling women what to do. Meanwhile, Mitt Romney says he's not going to support anti-abortion legislation, and then his campaign corrects him: he will, he just forgot that he will.

gilgigamesh:Delay: FlashHarry: it's pretty easy for them to control the message: vote for "not the black guy".

Well, it's weird that Romney's own spokesperson does more to expose Romney's BS than the media.

It's actually a pattern, and it seems to be a deliberate tactic.

Romney's campaign has been trying to play both sides of controversial issues by having the candidate say one thing in public -- the mainstream view -- only to have his campaign walk the statement back almost immediately. That way the low information mainstream voters hear what they want to hear and get on with life. When the base complains about his position, the campaign can say he "misspoke" and the record has been corrected. But most voters don't know about the walk-back.

I've noticed it happens all the time; far too often to be simple error or ineptitude.

Romney is the first true, pureblood corporate candidate, and he has the marketing strategy to prove it.

I imagine the daily mirror-staring psych up job they must do to themselves. "Okay, Tom...you gotta go out there and give it your best. *deep breath and muscle flex* Now, don't read the paper today until you feel you're ready *glances at front page* MOTHER F*CKER! He said what about abortion?! For the love of a merciful...okay...just calm down, Tom...you're doing this because the President is a negro."

serial_crusher:shrug. Every time I use the phrase "pro-abortion" in a thread, I get a slew of herpaderp about how there's a difference between people who support your right to have an abortion, and those who plan on having one themselves.

I know, what the fark right? I mean, it's like there are people out there who support a women's right to make her own medical decisions.

serial_crusher:shrug. Every time I use the phrase "pro-abortion" in a thread, I get a slew of herpaderp about how there's a difference between people who support your right to have an abortion, and those who plan on having one themselves everyone knows I'm a tool.

Weaver95:FlashHarry: Weaver95: y'know...if Romney flipped this quick on abortion - what makes anyone believe that he'll stay strong on the economy? or foreign policy? or anything else for that matter? the guy is either a lying bottom feeder or he's just got no spine. either way he's not a good fit for the job of President.

this MUST be the message of the obama campaign for the remaining weeks. articulate your vision and contrast it with the flip-flops of your challenger.

i'm planning on helping with an Obama phone bank on thursday. i'll make note of it.

God Is My Co-Pirate:hubiestubert: Weaver95: y'know...if Romney flipped this quick on abortion - what makes anyone believe that he'll stay strong on the economy? or foreign policy? or anything else for that matter? the guy is either a lying bottom feeder or he's just got no spine. either way he's not a good fit for the job of President.

Nothing has really changed since his days from Maine.

It's not that he lacks spine, it's that he lacks principles...

He's greedy, untrustworthy, almost comically unlikeable, and he's fronting for a hateful racist, sexist party full of morans and dickbags.

Romney also forced me to register Democrat AND go volunteer for the Obama campaign. that man scares the piss outta me. I do NOT want to live in a theocracy!

hubiestubert:Weaver95: y'know...if Romney flipped this quick on abortion - what makes anyone believe that he'll stay strong on the economy? or foreign policy? or anything else for that matter? the guy is either a lying bottom feeder or he's just got no spine. either way he's not a good fit for the job of President.

Nothing has really changed since his days from Maine.

It's not that he lacks spine, it's that he lacks principles...

He's greedy, untrustworthy, almost comically unlikeable, and he's fronting for a hateful racist, sexist party full of morans and dickbags.

y'know...if Romney flipped this quick on abortion - what makes anyone believe that he'll stay strong on the economy? or foreign policy? or anything else for that matter? the guy is either a lying bottom feeder or he's just got no spine. either way he's not a good fit for the job of President.

Delay:Erik Fehrstrom said that Romney could completely change his positions on abortion, taxes and anything else and hardly any Republican would notice.

well, apart from a few liberal pundits on msnbc, they've got the media in their pocket. and when most republicans get their news from fox news, which is the de facto media arm of the mainstream GOP, it's pretty easy for them to control the message: vote for "not the black guy".

ManateeGag:if he wins the election, I severely doubt he will be actually running the country.

You're not the only one who thinks that:

But none could doubt the movement's swagger when Norquist fine-tuned his newest talking point about Mitt Romney. He predicted that the leadership of the conservative movement for the next 20 years will emanate from Congress, not the White House (a likely development for which Democrats seem unprepared).

"We're not auditioning for someone to tell us what to do," he declared. "We know what to do. We just need a president who can sign the legislation that the Republican House and Senate pass. ... We don't need someone to think. ... We need someone who knows how to hold a pen."

Clemkadidlefark:Obama - "If I can't fix the economy in three years, I'll be a one term President."

Bazinga

when the stimulus passed, the US was in recession, we were losing 800,000 jobs a month, and the dow was at 6,000.today, we're out of recession, we've gained private-sector jobs for 32 straight months, and the dow is at 13,000.

and all this was accomplished despite the entire republican party being unified in their efforts to destroy the recovery.

bhcompy:Barnstormer: When I was in a relationship I thought that reproductive choice was the litmus-test issue that would determine whom I voted for. Which side I was on depended on which side she was on (based upon my firm conviction that having one dick means you should get NO vote on the matter)

Weaver95:y'know...if Romney flipped this quick on abortion - what makes anyone believe that he'll stay strong on the economy? or foreign policy? or anything else for that matter? the guy is either a lying bottom feeder or he's just got no spine. either way he's not a good fit for the job of President.

yeah, that's pretty much the entire election. right now the ballot would be no different if it was obama vs. "white person to be named later." that is what scares the shiat out of me... that people will vote for someone without having any idea what they think about anything, except for the negative stuff that has come out from behind-closed-door fundraisers.

Ordinary Genius:Here, take this pill. It should make you feel better, but we don't know what's in it. Same argument. Do you take the pill?

Were the contents of that pill debated in Congress for over a year, talked about on the news every single day for over a year, and the main topic of debate all around the country for over a year? Because ObamaCare was. If anyone didn't know what was in it, then it's their own goddamned fault for being willfully ignorant and their words should not be taken seriously since they, apparently, lived under a rock for over a year. but they know they oppose it because it will destroy everything. Even though they don't know what is in it.

bhcompy:Nuuu: bhcompy: There is nothing contradictory about these statements. Appointing a judge or getting rid of funding is not legislation. He's just speaking politician speak in a very literal way, so no one can claim he lied.

Getting rid of funding is legislation. All discretionary funding goes through appropriation bills that have to undergo the normal legislative process to become laws, i.e., legislation.

Not necessarily. An executive order could suffice

That's highly doubtful. You can't just write "I hereby defund Planned Parenthood" and have it be true, even as an executive order. Congress controls the purse strings by design and the president can't simply overrule their funding decisions. You may think that the President's executive powers are unlimited given Obama's recent high profile decision to not enforce certain immigration laws under certain circumstances, but everyone agrees that even that pushes the bounds of what the executive can unilaterally do, and what you're proposing is even more extreme.

Second, even Congress can't simply call out a single organization and declare them defunded. That's unconstitutional. Planned Parenthood gets its federal money from grants and programs that it qualifies for. To "defund" them you need rework the application criteria for those grants and programs so that Planned Parenthood no longer qualifies, or simply end those programs entirely. Again, these are things you can't accomplish by executive order. You need the legislative branch.

Joe Blowme:The same congress that controlled both houses the first 2 years of Obama?

How many times is this ridiculous talking point going to be brought up?

The democrats had 2 months, tops and even then they weren't immune to the fillibuster. A republican congress whose stated goal is to make Obama a one term President even if it destroys the country can't be stopped from obstructing everything he's trying to do, no matter what.

It is so transparent what Romney is trying to do. The fact that he's getting away with it is absolutely mind-boggling and infuriating. John Kerry voted against a procedural motion to make a point about the Iraq war then voted to keep funding it and was tagged a flippy-floppy waffler for eight months straight. This is the second time since the Republican convention that Romney and his campaign have taken diametrically opposed positions on abortion in the same farking day and nobody seems to give a shiat. Unbelievable

/and after the last week, the next person that says to my face that the media is in Obama's pocket or has a liberal bias is going to get cockpunched so hard they'll have to piss through their asshole. //ohemad.jpg///goddam straight I'm mad

monoski:Ordinary Genius: And Romney himself doesn't even know what he will do if he becomes President.

poop his magic underwear? Is that even allowed? does that make them not magical anymore?...these are the real questions that need to be asked.

I think he knows damn well what he intends to do; His primary goal is to reduce or eliminate cap gains taxes so he and his heirs can live basically tax-free (until another administration realizes they need the money and put the tax back)

You left out:

1 War with Iran so he and his buddies can make hundreds of billions off the blood of other people's sons and daughters

2. Privatize Social Security--just like George Bush tried to do so, during the next financial meltdown created by lack of enforcement, trillions will be transferred to the rich.

3. Get rid of PBS so Frontline can't make anymore critical documentaries.

There's so much more but I have a headache just thinking about the fact that the same people who re-eclected Bush Cheney will be voting again. I don't have anyone in my circle who are draftable so I just give up. I'll vote for Obama even though I've been a registered Republican virtually all my life.

someonelse:Ordinary Genius: Weaver95: y'know...if Romney flipped this quick on abortion - what makes anyone believe that he'll stay strong on the economy? or foreign policy? or anything else for that matter? the guy is either a lying bottom feeder or he's just got no spine. either way he's not a good fit for the job of President.

You mean like Obama on Gitmo, Foreign policy, Detention, the Drug War, and gay marriage?

It's all fine and good to bring up examples of Obama's stances changing over time. But can you tell me what Mitt Romney's position is on abortion right now? It's one thing to change your mind. But the Romney campaign cannot even explain what his state of mind is. They are attempting to portray him as holding mutually exclusive views, in the hopes that everyone will see something they like.

Gitmo is an odd place to draw a line. Gitmo can't closed any time soon. Simply can't because many of the folks cannot be put into our justice system now. Chains of evidence, chains of custody, it's all messed up because of the corners cut how folks were captured and detained. They go into our justice system, they will have to be released immediately. That is the legacy of the Bush years, a prison full of folks we can't legally hold here, and who cannot now be released because they will be a beacon for the very folks we're trying to combat. Had we treated terrorism as a law enforcement matter, and NOT cut corners or ignored standing laws, we might have gotten them tried and convicted, but given their treatment and how they were detained, they are in a legal Limbo right now. Plain and simple. Obama got left with the bag on this one, and folks are peeing themselves over the few folks we could try, because they are political cowards who don't want the boogeymen in their backyards.

The Drug War? That's a odd thing, considering that the Executive is sort of forced to uphold the laws of the land. Even the ones he doesn't like. It would be nice if folks didn't pee themselves with the thought of legalization of pot, but that's what we are left with, and so long as that is the law, then we are sort of stuck with it.

Marriage equality? It's time for us to actually fulfill the promise of equality under the law, and actually uphold religious freedom. It's well past time, and this former Republican fully favors marriage equality, on Constitutional grounds--especially that pesky freedom of religion and equality under the law. None of my damn business what consenting adults do in their own homes and in their own churches.

That is a bit different than Romney speaking out of both sides of his mouth, at the same damn time. The man has all the political backbone of an octopus...

Ordinary Genius:Weaver95: y'know...if Romney flipped this quick on abortion - what makes anyone believe that he'll stay strong on the economy? or foreign policy? or anything else for that matter? the guy is either a lying bottom feeder or he's just got no spine. either way he's not a good fit for the job of President.

You mean like Obama on Gitmo, Foreign policy, Detention, the Drug War, and gay marriage?

Did Obama say he was going to close Gitmo, then claim he was going to keep it open the next day and deny he was going to close Gitmo? Because that's how Romney operates.

See, Romney flips flops on the issues multiple times within a week. You actually don't know what he really stands for. Those things, we know Obama changed and has been consistent with it once he's changed. he doesn't say one thing to one person, then say the exact opposite the next day like Romney does with every single issue.

serial_crusher:shrug. Every time I use the phrase "pro-abortion" in a thread, I get a slew of herpaderp about how there's a difference between people who support your right to have an abortion, and those who plan on having one themselves.

Maybe it's because there actually IS a difference between supporting a woman's right to have an abortion and planning to actually have an abortion?

For starters, the second group, by definition, consists entirely of pregnant women -- despite Fox News' claims to the contrary, it's impossible to have an abortion when you're not pregnant for much the same reason women can't get vasectomies or people with both legs amputated above the knee cannot get ACL surgery.

Then there's the fact that if you replace "have an abortion" with anything else at all, it will be much easier for you to see that not everyone who supports a right has plans to exercise that right. For example, I support your right to have a three-way with a pair of trailer-park fatties who can't leave their homes without the help of a forklift, even though I have no plans to do so myself.

IAmRight:FFS, he has three debates. You're arguing like a baseball fan whose team just lost game 1 in a best-of-three because they didn't start their ace against the opposing team's ace. Yeah, they lost game 1, but they're set up even better for games 2 and 3 now.

I just find it hilarious how Democrats make such a huge deal out of "flip-flopping", as they call it. I have never once heard a Republican call any Democratic candidate a flip-flopper, because Republicans do not brand their opponents and Republicans prefer to debate the issues. Republicans do not resort to name-calling, you stupid liberals. Deal with it. Mitchell "Thaddeus" Romney is more intelligent than any of you, and it shouldn't be surprising that when he speaks, that philosophers, academics, experts, and the common man all come together to determine what Romney has actually said. From there, people find multiple interpretations. And from there, people claim he has given many different positions on the same issue. "Misinterpretation of ideas" is not "Romney took multiple positions on the same issue". The end. Go home. Taxbongo lost the election. Stop being jealous that Romney is smarter than you.

He supports it, he just doesn't have anything planned. Not a flip-flop.

And of course he doesn't have anything planned, because it's not his job to plan anything, it's his job to get elected so that certain people can tell him what their plans are and then get them into the system.

And the other part of that comment is, if Obama can't be arsed to confront a mormon liar on TV and act like he wants the job, the hell with him. Seriously. The tea baggers should have been stomped on TV every week in 09, by Obama, the theoretical leader of the free world. Instead he is letting those senile plasterbrained punks have the floor and conceding points left and right in the name of "bipartisan cooperation."

Like a cowboy once said, you don't negotiate with terrorists. I consider tea baggers our modern taliban. They should be confronted as the liars they are, they should be shouted out of their own party and relegated back to the cult status they had. But little by little the Republicans have been cultivating these guys, and now we have the Reagan Youth all grown up in the form of Paul Ryan, who is the child of government entitlement yet wants to pull the rug out from everyone else that came after him.

I would like if Obama grew a pair and used his epic speaking skills to fight more like Dean or Clinton or Rendell, instead of being more like a younger Harry Reid.

Tigger:Weaver95: FlashHarry: Weaver95: y'know...if Romney flipped this quick on abortion - what makes anyone believe that he'll stay strong on the economy? or foreign policy? or anything else for that matter? the guy is either a lying bottom feeder or he's just got no spine. either way he's not a good fit for the job of President.

this MUST be the message of the obama campaign for the remaining weeks. articulate your vision and contrast it with the flip-flops of your challenger.

i'm planning on helping with an Obama phone bank on thursday. i'll make note of it.

Weaver is a case study in what has happened to the GOP.

From ardent right winger to Obama supporter in just 6 years.

A heroic tale of self discovery.

Welcome to the land of the less deluded. I wish he hadn't fumbled on national TV so badly last week, but all this does is makes his own comeback all the more epic. right. Right???

I am comfortable with America screwing itself if thats what America wants. I lived through this once already with Reagan. Biggest sack of lying phony fake crap around, yet America ate it up. Wasn't morning in america where I grew up. Far from it.

So you guys get out the vote for Obama, we'll be better off if he wins, but ... America needs to learn to quit electing liars, if putting a mormon cultist liar into office is how it learned that finally, I'm fine with it. The country's too big to fail. Doncha know.

Weaver95:what_now: Weaver95: Romney also forced me to register Democrat AND go volunteer for the Obama campaign.

Oh Weaves. I remember when I had you farkied as "fascist".

I *despise* theocracies. And the GOP (at the local/state and federal level) is pushing a 'biblical' form of government. not only are they theocrats but they're authoritarians as well, which is basically super sizing the horribleness of the whole situation. the libertarians - as much as I like them - seem to be just fine with authoritarian style government...just as long as we're being crushed by corporations and not the Fedgov. while I have my issues with the Democrats....out of all my choices, they are the lesser of many evils.

I'm sorry your party abandoned you, dude. But I'm glad to have you in my corner. :)

Mugato:.... although I may have heard one guy who obviously knows nothing about what Romney did as a businessman say that because he's a successful businessman he'd make a good President but that's all

Every time I hear "The President is CEO of the world's most powerful ________," I want to fly into a murderous, Constitutionally-inspired rage.

Weaver95:y'know...if Romney flipped this quick on abortion - what makes anyone believe that he'll stay strong on the economy? or foreign policy? or anything else for that matter? the guy is either a lying bottom feeder or he's just got no spine. either way he's not a good fit for the job of President.

One thing he can't flip-flop on is his race, which is probably why some of his supporters continue to support him.

serial_crusher:shrug. Every time I use the phrase "pro-abortion" in a thread, I get a slew of herpaderp about how there's a difference between people who support your right to have an abortion, and those who plan on having one themselves.

What does that have to do with what Romney said? Are you suggesting he thinks its morally wrong, but also thinks abortion should be a legal alternative for those who want it?

shrug. Every time I use the phrase "pro-abortion" in a thread, I get a slew of herpaderp about how there's a difference between people who support your right to have an abortion, and those who plan on having one themselves.

Sybarite:He's going to say whatever it takes to get elected, and his base understands this.

During the debate Romney claimed that "half" of the green firms the stimulus invested in "have gone out of business" and noted that "a number of them happened to be owned by people who were contributors to your campaigns. I had a friend who said you don't just pick the winners and losers, you pick the losers, all right?"

WhiskeyBender:Has a comet passed close to earth? Something is strange because I've never seen a politician say one thing that sides with a group of people, then take the other side with another group. Never!

I've never seen one do it on literally every single issue like Romney has.